nlpg application: potboiler theatre’s Sound & Story testbed

EXAMPLE WEBLINK: music & theatre in our previous work

Music and collaboration with music makers has been at the heart of Potboiler projects, in small and large ways, from the outset.

When first thinking about how to create performance that would connect with people in Stoke-on-Trent in 2014 we knew music would be fundamental.

The projects highlighted below have all involved different ways of we have worked with music, the artistic pathway that has taken the company to now.

Each has given us a creative kernel, a piece of learning or an idea that we will explore, play with or scale up, or a key creative question we will aim to answer in this R&D.

The Rhapsodies & The Inn: music to connect with new audiences

In 2015, we paired theatre actors and gigging musicians to spin reimagined local legends on unsuspecting drinkers in a tour of Stoke pubs, in The Rhapsodies (Arts Council England) (audio linked below). We then locked audiences in for a farcical drama underscored with a resident live band in The Inn.

In both, we found music had an incredible power to invite audiences in, to bridge the real world of the pub, of the city, of where we are now and an imagined one, helping people take a leap of faith, from something known to something unknown.

Actor and musician became a key partnership, a collaboration. In the world of pubs, working with recognised local musicians helped translate the show to a local audience and help them feel yes, this is for me.

In TESTBED we’ll ask, can working with local musicians/bands again allow us to tap into authentic voices of the city but important can we hold onto the creative freedom to explore stories outside of it too?

GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS: music as storytelling

In 2017’s, GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS, we knew a different kind of music would be needed to tell a subtle coming-of-age story. For the first time we collaborated with a Composer who understood scripted work. Their subtle 90s-inspired composition helped transport audiences to a specific moment in time. With its originality and thoughtfulness however this didn’t become something nostalgic, instead it helped audiences access the psychological world of the characters.

We discovered original music could offer new dimensions to story - when right, the Composer, Director and Writer collaboration could unlock new depths.

In 2020, we discovered similar when working with a Composer on audio pieces our youth grows (Urban Wilderness commission) (linked below) and Instructions to Those Leaving Planet Earth (Lichfield Cathedral commission) - music could help audiences access the intended tone and emotion and give them a key to enter into the characters’ worlds.

In TESTBED can we reach the same kind of collaboration when working with live music rather than pre-recorded music and can this be subtle and decliate, supporting storyteling not overpowering it? And what kind of musicians do we need in the room to do that?

GAY STOKE: MUSIC AS CONNECTION

In 2025’s heritage & participation project, GAY STOKE (Historic England, Everyday Heritage) music held an intensely personal role.

Through sessions with members of the North Midlands LGBT Older Peoples Group we discovered how music shapes moments in time, soundtracks memories and can take people back to places they hadn’t been in long time.

As well as being an intense solo experience we also discovered it was incredibly communal one. One that enabled individuals to connect in the present to each other as they revisited the past.

And when it came to sharing their story with an audience, music became a vital tool in providing them with the bravery and the armour to do so.

In TESTBED, can we find ways to recreate this communal, shared experience when working with new music? Can we also make the audience feel part of and sharing in a theatrical experience in the same way you feel at a live gig?

beyond potboiler…

music making as identity

In Kat Boon’s solo work, produced project The Bradford Progress (Jeremy Deller and Paraorchestra, Bradford UK City of Culture), a 36 hour musical journey across the landscape of Bradford involving over 200 musicians and musical groups, introduced that music making can be a key part of identity, social and geographical belonging.

music to speak to a community

And as part of RIDE (Bradford UK City of Culture), in which Southpaw Dance Company and Spin Arts worked with a rapper to write a concept album underpinning a dance-based show exploring the story of a local Gypsy Traveller community. Rap was the key means to speak to this community, to gain their trust and as a text based genre to communicate the nuance of their story.

gig-theatre for StokE

In Sound & Story Testbed, over a series of R&Ds these broad-ranging ideas will be brought together with an expanded team of new collaborators to help us shape and understand what gig-theatre could look like for Stoke-on-Trent.

Can it offer a new way to tell stories of the city, bringing a new type of liveness to audiences?

Can it sit in the sweetspot between gig and theatre, one thats authentic and can speak to a gig-going audience?

Can the concept album give us a way into creating unifying stories for the city?

Can music help us create experiences that bring different kinds of audiences together?

Can we galvanise the right collection of creatives, music sector and strategic partners to create something new and exciting for the city?